Issues Solved Soulmate AU
by gaybaconprincess
Summary: Imagine if when you're born, you're born with some sort of illness, or you're destined to have one later in life. Everywhere, people are sad, or crazy, or just generally can't heal correctly. However, when you make any form of contact with your soulmate, both you and your soulmate are cured of your random illness. [Vent writing] [Kolinx/Jerikyd/MamStar/HerSee/AngRae/Punk Rancid]
1. Kole-Jinx (Memory Loss-Cancer)

[So I found this really interesting prompt on tumblr - credit to amoux-da-wolf - Imagine if when you're born, you're born with some sort of illness, or you're destined to have one later in life. Everywhere, people are sad, or crazy, or just generally can't heal correctly. However, when you make any form of contact with your soulmate, you get this warm feeling in your stomach, and both you and your soulmate are cured of your random illness. I'm going to be doing more than one chapter, each with a different ship and with a different set of illness. This chapter focuses on Kolinx - Kole and Jinx.]

"-Right so like I was saying, I saw this strange lady today I don't think I've seen before with just the _prettiest_ red hair and-" sped Kole like a bolt as words flew from her mouth at the speed of light.

 _Ni_ cole, Jinx reminded herself.

 _Jaya_. Jaya reminded herself. Nicole often played this game of superheroes and supervillains, like playing pretend, and she'd refused to answer to anything except Kole for a while now. She'd apparently named Jaya a supervillain, Jinx.

'Jinx' continued her way down the looming white hallway of the medical center, showing Kole to the cafeteria again. Jinx wasn't upset of course, she completely understood her lost friend's trouble.

Just like how Jaya Salem was cursed with cancer which had now progressed all the way to stage four since her diagnosis, Nicole Weathers was the victim of an untimely accident which burdened her with short term memory loss.

Jinx could live with her disease easy, she'd grown into a pattern much like how she'd grown into one with her unlikely friend Nicole. Nicole relived the exact same day that she came to rest at the hospital, not remembering anything since. The only thing she did seem to remember, was that her favorite color was pink, her best friend was a boy who often came to visit her named Joseph Wilson, and that she was allergic to peanuts.

This was often difficult for most people to deal with, in fact Nicole's family had stopped coming to visit her months ago. It hurt sometimes when Jaya would go to see Nicole in her designated 'seat' that she sat at every single day and she hadn't a clue who she was. Kole would look up at Jinx with those big, beautiful, innocent eyes and optimistically questioned, "Do I know you, miss?". It always sent a deep pang all through Jaya's system, it hurt far worse than any treatment or cancer had so far. Still - Jinx had learned to deal with it. Jinx would become best friends with Kole all over again everyday.

If Jaya was actually honest with herself, it was all worth it to see Nicole's thankful smile when she helped her find the cafeteria everyday.

"Bagels!" Nicole squealed childishly as she burst open the cafeteria doors and sprinted over to grab a plate. Jaya chuckled and shook her head at her friend's always childish behavior, sitting down at a table that had a window view of the garden outside.

"I don't care what you told me, this cafeteria food is great!" Nicole said through a mouth full of blueberry bagel. Jaya was always awed at how much Nicole loved food, it may have been her growing up with so many brothers.

Jaya smiled and shook her head again, examining her friend's soft pink hair as she ate. Jaya sighed sadly as she ran a hand over her own head. She remembered when she had hair, but that was so long ago. She was first diagnosed as a cancer patient when she was only four after all.

"Miss Salem?" Nicole said to get her 'new' friend's attention.

"Jaya's fine, really." Jaya said as she snapped out of her reverie.

"Why do always look so sad all the time? You look too pretty to be sad. Isn't there anyway I can make you happy?" Nicole asked as she pouted at her friend's melancholy appearance. Jaya merely shook her head and smiled, ignoring Nicole's question altogether.

"Hey do you think this cafeteria serves any-" Nicole started, glancing longingly over to the food display.

"Cookies?" Jinx finished for her younger companion, laying out a large plate of cookies in front of her. Jaya smiled and giggled a little when Nicole's whole face lit up in joy and amazement, already scoffing down two cookies as she let out a muffled 'how did you know?' through her full mouth.

"Lucky guess." Jaya replied lamely.

"You're so kind. I wish I had even more friends like you Jaya...I hope we're gonna be best friends forever." Kole said fondly as she sprung out of her seat and wrapped her arms around a now blushing Jaya's neck, hugging her tightly.

 _Friends_ _, right_. Jaya thought to herself bitterly before she felt Nicole freezing up.

"Nicole? Nicole? Ni...Kole! Kole what's wrong?" Jaya shouted as Nicole started shaking and a flood of empty tears left her broken eyes.

"I...remember." Kole let out in a strangled voice, her smile wider than ever and her tears becoming catalysts of her own joy. Jaya herself started feeling something warm and light in her stomach, but ignored it for the sake of her emotions.

"I remember! Jaya! Jaya we've already been best friends for so long! You bring me cookies everyday and you make me laugh when I'm sad and you listen to my boring jokes and laugh even though you've heard them everyday for the past year!" Kole exclaimed in an excited voice as she bounced up and down on her heels.

Jinx laughed and smiled along with her, but that's when things started to feel heavy and dark. Everything swirled around the diseased girl and everyone moved in slow motion.

"Jaya? Jaya!" Jaya heard Nicole shout in a muffled voice, although she was standing right next to Jaya she seemed so far away. All of Jaya's world went black as she hit the floor with a painful 'thump!'.

When Jaya woke up, she was lying in her hospital bed and coughing up a hurricane with how dry her mouth was. She looked over to find Nicole sleeping in an uncomfortable looking chair beside her bed and various torment-like tubes sticking up and down her arms.

"Miss Jaya Salem. I...I don't know how to tell you this…" Came the impending voice of a male doctor who had appeared out of nowhere. All the color drained out of Jaya's already pale face. She couldn't leave, not now. Nicole wouldn't make it. They'd finally found each other, for real this time.

"You're cured." The doctor stated uneasily. Jaya sat and gawked at the doctor for what felt like hours before she finally stuttered out a quiet 'cured…?'. The doctor did his best to stay calm and try to maintain his 'I'm smarter than you' attitude while explaining, but there was no logical solution to how Jaya's cancer had been cured.

Jaya then looked over at where Nicole was sleeping, remembering the whole 'only cured when you meet your soulmate' deal going around.

Jaya smiled as she got up out of her hospital bed by herself for the first time in a while, and softly kissed Nicole's forehead, completely ignoring the indignant doctor in front of her bedside.

Nicole stirred for a moment before finally opening her tired eyes just a bit, knowing exactly who it was that had kissed her. For the first time Nicole knew everything about the person in front of her, and was proud to be able to say her next words.

"I love you too Jaya."

[wOW I need more of this ship. It's way too unknown and needs more material. But yeah, I really enjoyed writing this. I hope to get back to my other works soon, but right now I just needed something to vent. I still plan on doing more, so this definitely won't be the last chapter. Reviews are greatly appreciated!]


	2. Punk-Johnny Rancid (Depression-PTSD)

[I do not own Teen Titans or any characters mentioned in this story. hEy here's another chapter with Johnny Rancid and Punk Rocket! This deals with depression and PTSD, so if you're sensitive to those topics please be careful.]

Thomas Leonard closed his eyes and sighed emptily as he listened to the sounds of booming fireworks just outside of his house. Why couldn't he be like that? Why couldn't he be happy?

Thomas had been diagnosed with severe depression seemingly out of nowhere a few months ago. It had been affecting him hard. He hated getting up and taking pills every morning, they just reminded him that there was something wrong with him. He couldn't force himself to eat much, he was always crying for no reason, all of his friends and family had simply left him because he was too difficult to be around. Thomas used to have the nickname 'Punk Rocket' at his school because he was always loud and happy and boisterous. Now he wasn't so much.

No matter what he did or who he turned to, his terrible thoughts always came back to him. He didn't deserve to be happy, he was stupid and insignificant.

Thomas hadn't talked to a real person in months, only coming out of his room when he had to. He'd give anything to just be happy for once. All he could do was lay on his bed and cry. He didn't even know why he was crying this time. With every laughing voice and screaming child he heard, another sob escaped his heaving chest.

Then for the first time in months, Punk Rocket heard knocking at his door.

Or, well, it was more of a desperate pounding that threatened to break the door off of its hinges.

"Rocket! R-Rocket…!" He heard a gruff voice scream brokenly from the other side of his doorway.

Thomas hurried to his door, merely turning the handle before Johnny burst into his house and crouched on the ground.

Johnny was just some guy he'd talked to when he was at the hospital for his pills about a month ago. He'd been in a really bad accident and had terrible PTSD. Anytime he heard a loud crashing or booming noise he'd crouch to the ground and scream bloody murder with his head in his hands.

Johnny gave Thomas his number for the hell of it really, told Thomas that he'd call every day - which he did - as long as Thomas would talk to him and calm him down if he ever had a meltdown.

He was definitely having a meltdown right about now.

Johnny rocked himself back and forth, hating himself for crying like a baby in front of Thomas.

Thomas quickly snapped out of his shock from having a wild Johnny burst into his house and knelt beside Johnny, enveloping him in a hug. Thomas didn't know very well what to do in this situation, so he just kept saying things like 'it will be okay' and 'I'm right here and so are you, you're okay here'.

The pair of almost strangers stayed like that for a while, both hunched together on the floor of Thomas' living room.

And then, seemingly out of nowhere, both of the broken boys that were embraced in each other's arms felt a shining white enter their vision, and a welcoming heat absorb their stomachs.

The tears that had never ceased flowing from Thomas' eyes suddenly stopped and his breathing stopped hiccuping in unknown grief. Thomas suddenly felt lighter, like he used to. He suddenly felt extremely hungry, his eyes were finally aware of how exhausted he was, and now had the strength to move around and stand up.

Johnny felt the same strange change in himself. He heard the booming crash of one of the many fireworks outside and relaxed when a wave of anxiety neglected to crash over him. There was no longer an aching pain in his head from all the screaming, and he could actually unfurl himself from where he was holding on to his friend.

They were both cured, and neither could believe it even though they both knew the reason why.

"Soulmates." Johnny and Thomas both whispered to themselves in equally disbelieving and reverent voices.

The pair sat and just stared at each other for a few moments, seeing each other for as if the very first time.

Thomas analyzed Johnny's many tattoos that dripped up and down his arms menacingly as Johnny looked up at Thomas' bleached white hair curiously.

"Do you wanna go watch the fireworks?" Thomas finally said abruptly, making Johnny's attention snap back to his apparent 'soulmate's face.

Johnny nodded with a smile as Thomas pulled him up by his hand and led him outside.

Thomas finally enjoyed the night, sharing happiness and laughter with everyone else outside his house and Johnny finally experienced relief and excitement all at the same time.

[Very short I know, reviews are very appreciated!]


	3. SeeMore-Herald (Blindness-Panic Attacks)

[I do not own Teen Titans, and the prompt idea belongs to Amoux-da-wolf. This chapter focuses on The Herald/See-More, who are both respectively referred to as Mal and Seymour throughout the chapter. This chapter deals with panic attacks and blindness, so if you're sensitive to those topics then don't read. This is really just more stress writing.]

Mal walked steadily down the dark alleyway, counting his steps in his head to numb his growing fear. He knew what would happen if he let his fear get the best of him, and he really didn't feel like causing a scene in a place where he was sure no one would find him. He just needed to make it back to his apartment before he shut down again, and everything would be okay. Mal continued to tell himself this as he yanked down his blue hood even further, scuffing up the back of the hoodie he was wearing.

As Mal continued his track through the dirty and damp alleyway filled with the stench of regret, he passed a very rugged looking black kitten. Cats, Mal liked cats. Mal breathed in and out slowly, focusing on the idea of soft baby cats instead of the idea of him being attacked or mugged or hurt or-

Before Mal could become consumed in his own mind, he spotted another boy walking down the same alleyway as him, and he ran to catch up to him. This was the perfect distraction.

"Nice day, isn't it?" Mal said suddenly, cringing as the shorter boy seemed to nearly jump out of his skin. What was he thinking? He probably was just giving this poor kid a hard time, stupid- stupid- stupid-

"Yeah, I guess." The other boy said with a chuckle, calming Mal down immensely, hoping the other boy didn't hear the large relieve sigh that escaped his lips.

"Sorry about jumping, I should've heard you coming. Just what I get for letting myself get so lost in thought I suppose. I'm Seymour, by the way." Seymour said with a soft, low voice that Mal could listen to all day. Mal felt almost immediately calmed by it, and it was an alien feeling to the taller.

"No, I should've warned you or something. There's no way you could've heard me coming from all the way back there...any...way…" Mal said before he trailed off, now noticing the staff like cane that Seymour was thumping on the ground methodically, guiding himself expertly despite his handicap.

"Oh my god." Mal muttered to himself urgently, wanting to sink into the ground from embarrassment.

"I didn't know, I-I-I'm s-so sorry! I should've-" Mal started, feeling invisible walls close around his throat and the urge to start screaming and crying surrounding his mental state. And then the fog like panic that surrounded him was easily cut apart by Seymour's voice.

"You couldn't be expected to know immediately, it's fine, really." Seymour said with another amused chuckle. It was only then that Mal noticed how Seymour's gaze was meticulously focused toward the ground to revert anyone from looking directly into his useless eyes.

A strangely comfortable silence filled the space between the two before Mal finally spoke up again.

"...I'm Mal. Mal Duncan." Mal said with a smile, trying his best not to screw things up again. Mal could just barely see Seymour smile and hum in thought.

"Mal...I like that name. Well, it's nice to meet you." Seymour said as he tilted his head in the general direction of Mal, hoping to create the effect of looking at him. Mal thought his efforts were cute.

And then suddenly, their small, secluded world of friendliness was broken apart.

"I keep getting this weird feeling. Do you...do you feel like someone's watching us?" Seymour asked with pure intentions. He couldn't have known how the taller boy would react.

Just after this sentence, a skidding sound came from the back of the alleyway. When thought out logically, it was obviously the sound of another cat crossing the dirty ground. Mal didn't have it in him to think logically, however.

Almost immediately, the air surrounding the boy felt thick and muggy, like breathing in water. His heartbeat sped up at a dangerous pace, and he felt like he could feel every vein in his body being hit with the speed his blood was pounding. His heartbeat pounded in his ears painfully, and Mal couldn't breathe anymore than desperate gasps for air and broken pants.

Mal fell to his knees, not minding the flashing pain that came with scraping them against the ground. He stuffed his hands underneath his hood and covered his ears, digging his nails into the side of his skull painfully and nearly drawing blood with his efforts. Mal suddenly started to shake violently, crying and yelling all at the same time as he rocked his body back and forth from the pain that consumed him.

"Mal? Mal!" Seymour called out, immediately dropping his staff and blindly reaching out for someone that wasn't there. Of course, Mal must have had a history of panic attacks, that would've explained why he was so nervous and jumpy before. Seymour should've known!

Suddenly Seymour heard a pained cry as Mal started kicking and scrambling his way against a dirty brick wall, his hands still latched onto the sides of his head and hot tears still covering his face. Mal slid down the wall, landing on his butt painfully, but the pain was covered up and numbed by the attack.

Seymour couldn't bare to form words anymore, now just openly whimpering with tears brimming his eyes at what he'd caused. This was his fault, he should've just walked away when Mal approached him like any other person.

Seymour walked toward the place he heard Mal drop, his cold fingers finally coming in contact with a brick wall. Seymour fumbled blindly for a moment as he searched for Mal, letting out a gasp of relief when his fingers came in contact with the fabric on the side of Mal's hood. Seymour sighed in relief, happy that Mal hadn't just sprinted away. Seymour's fingers clenched tightly onto the fabric, convinced that if he let it go Mal would slip right through his fingers.

"Mal…" Seymour said worriedly, desperate to fix what he'd broken. He was unaware of the way Mal looked up at him in a still terrified way, tears never ceasing.

"Mal, please!" Seymour said softly as he wrapped himself around Mal's arm in a makeshift embrace. Seymour didn't know how to handle situations like this, everyone he'd ever cared about had left him because it was easier that trying to cater to a blind man. Seymour hugged Mal's arm tightly, whispering small sayings of 'please, it will be alright, I promise' and 'there's nothing to be afraid of'.

But the moment that Seymour touched Mal's shoulder, Mal felt a burning sensation shoot through his body, and his tremors immediately stopped. His shoulder's slumped in relief, and his breathing became less labored. He slowly caught his breath, tears drying on his cheeks, and his mind whirring with the question of 'how on Earth could I be okay in the middle of an attack?'.

And then it hit Mal.

Soon, it also hit Seymour.

Seymour felt that Mal was okay, considering the shaking in the boy's shoulders had stopped. He backed away just a bit, now letting two fingers massage his temples.

"My...ugh, my head…" Seymour groaned to himself, grimacing at the pain he felt shoot up his body and ring through his head.

Mal reached out, softly brushing the brown hair out of Seymour's eyes, continuing to pour his gaze into Seymour's blank one.

Where Mal saw two bleach white eyes, Seymour started blinking and glaring and scrunching his eyes closed painfully to make the pain stop.

"Ugh...I feel...I feel funn...feel fu...funn...y…" Seymour murmured through his squinting eyes, not realizing just how captured Mal's attention was at the moment. With every blink of Seymour's eyes, they grew more vibrant and colorful. The bleach white slowly, very slowly, became darker and darker, along with his once ghost-like pupils.

Finally Seymour closed his eyes hard, one last time, and when the blind boy opened them, he wasn't blind anymore.

Mal looked up into Seymour's beautiful forest green eyes like they were a sign from God, his breathing heavy again. He started feeling shaky, and his breathing started getting labored, but this time it was definitely not from panic.

Seymour was completely frozen. He saw...blue...and brown, and black, and white, and grey and red and orange and…-

Seymour _saw_ Mal Duncan.

Seymour let one hollow tear roll down his cheek as a strangled gasp echoed out of his seemingly dysfunctional throat, his mouth agape with disbelief.

Out of nowhere, Mal unfroze himself and grabbed one of Seymour's arms, yanking the smaller boy toward himself. Seymour fell clumsily into Mal's arms, the two gripping onto each other for dear life as Seymour laughed brokenly and whimpered in disbelief.

"Hey…" Seymour said from his hiding place in the crook of Mal's neck. Seymour backed up once again, still close enough to _feel_ Mal's now calm and collected breathing, and genuinely smiled with his arms still wrapped around Mal's neck.

"How cheesy would it be if I commented on the fact that the first face I've ever seen in my life is also by far the prettiest?" Seymour said with a faint blush and a wide smile.

[I'm not very familiar with the process of what a panic attack feels like, but I tried. I ship these two, and I don't really know why. Read and Review please! I'll probably post more soon.]


	4. Starfire-Mammoth (Migraine-Paralyzation)

[I do not own Teen Titans. The prompt belongs to amoux-da-wolf. This one is Starfire/Mammoth, because I just love this pairing so much and no one else seems to. It's never actually said, but Starfire has frequent migraines and Mammoth is paralyzed from the waist down.]

Baran sighed from his permanent seat in his wheelchair. Today was the same as every other day. After breakfast he'd roll his wheelchair to the spot just outside of his room's door, and he'd watch as generic nurses and doctors sped by and wrote things on clipboards. Nothing new, nothing special, nothing exciting or fun. Baran had long grown used to this...numbness. His sister was the only one who'd bother to come visit him in the sterile hospital, and now she had gone to Alaska for a business trip.

Baran sighed as his eyes dropped and he looked longingly down at his own two feet. The two feet that he'd never once used.

"Oh, I'm sorry - I'll get on that right away sir!" Came a different voice.

Baran perked up toward where the cheery yet worried voice came from. Baran had been here so long he had memorized every single voice and name of every patient and doctor and nurse here, so who was this?

Suddenly, a strange girl came recklessly speeding pass Baran at an alarming rate, barely giving Baran enough time to look at her. He saw a blur of orange and red, and then when she tripped over something down the hallway he saw just a little bit more detail - at least enough to tell that she was tall and, according to her attire, a nurse.

Baran watched intently as she got up just as quickly as she fell down and continued her chase down the hall, seeming to almost fly behind the corner of the hallway and practically leaving a starstreak of her long red hair behind her.

Baran sat and stared at the corner she'd turned long after she'd left the hallway, the space being cluttered once again with it's normal sound of nurse's heels and hospital equipment.

Baran looked down again and sighed, trying to burn the picture of the girl into his mind. He didn't really know why, but something told him she was important.

Baran sat straight up in his chair, cracking his back for a moment, before he smoothly rolled himself back into his room and toward a very familiar drawer next to his bedside. He yanked open the drawer despite his careful effort because of his large clumsy hands, and shuffled through the drawer for just a moment before he pulled out a box of assorted art tools fit for a kindergartener and a sketchpad.

Baran looked down at the things he'd placed in his lap with a glare, deciding whether it was worth it to even open them up. Once he decided it was, Baran rolled out a grade school desk-like structure with wheels from where it was folded behind his bed and emptied out a pack of crayola crayons from the art box.

* * *

The next time that Baran saw the mystery nurse was right after he'd eaten his crummy, bland excuse for a hospital lunch.

Baran sat in his bed, opting to just move the desk in front of him so that he could eat and color at the same time. He still had a mouthful of mystery sandwich as he gazed down at his portrait hatefully. Without having really seen much about the girl, it was impossible for Baran to create any more than a first grade looking color blotch that vaguely resembled the blur that passed him in the hallway.

On the paper was the blotchy coloring that formed a person with a white hospital jacket, tan almost-orange skin, and red hair that seemed to wisp away everywhere like smoke from a firecracker.

Baran didn't like his interpretation one bit.

He grumbled childishly as he moved the desk and, after a bit of moving around, managed to get himself back into his wheelchair and wheel himself back to his spot outside with his sketchbook still in his lap.

Maybe a change in scenery would help?

Baran looked over not even seven feet away from him where the desk of the inner hospital was, expecting to see one of his favored staff, Nurse Karen Beecher.

Instead, he saw the object of his frustrations seeming to bore her eyes into the clock that hung on the wall.

Baran sat and stared at the girl, wanting to move his hands to sketch but unable to, and the girl sat and stared at the ticking clock. Finally, when the clock ticked to twelve fifteen, the girl let out a huge sigh and leaned back in her wheely chair, almost knocking herself backwards.

When she stood up out of the chair, she finally noticed she had a certain someone gazing at her.

"Oh! Uh, hello!" The tall girl said cheerily as she waved with just a little too much vigor.

Baran sat and panicked for a moment, desperate to find something to make the girl stay where she was so that Baran could just sketch her and get it over with. Finally, the dense boy noticed the bag in her hand.

"You're on your break, right? Uh, why don't you...do you want to come and eat with me? I could...uh, keep you company." Baran fumbled. Turns out the concept of not having anyone to talk to in months put your ability to form real words and sentences directed to other people just a little behind.

"Well...I don't see why not." The girl said finally, walking into Baran's hospital room after him.

Soon enough, the two found each other in wonderful company, with the mystery nurse sat in a chair at the back of the room and Baran still in his wheelchair next to her. He could see much more detail of her now. She had deep green eyes that seemed very sad and very hopeful at the same time, and she had straight, nearly flat hair.

"-I know! I wish she could've come with me to at least look at this place before I started working here, but no~! Koma Anders is much too busy to help her ditzy baby sister." the nurse, Kori - as Baran reminded himself, finished. She giggled a bit at her own story, convinced that Baran wouldn't like her sister all that much either.

"I...I don't think you're ditzy, Kori. I think you're really smart. I mean, you're smart enough to qualify as a nurse, right? I barely made it through middle school." Baran said quietly, feeling his heart rate boom upward when Kori smiled softly at him.

"Aw, thank you Baran." Kori said as she reached over and threw away the last of her lunch's trash.

"Oh, shoot! I'm late! I'll make sure to catch you later before I clock out, I promise! Thanks for letting me stay!" Kori called as she was already sprinting out of the door with her red hair like a light trail behind her. Baran smiled and waved goodbye to his company, just narrowly catching sight of her purple converse sneakers, which explained how she hadn't broken her nose yet with all the running.

Baran looked down in his lap where he had his sketchpad before he reached over and grabbed a pencil and a pen, bending over to better work on his portrait.

* * *

Baran did see Kori again before she clocked out, but not in the state he wish he had.

Kori was a very pretty girl. Baran knew this, considering he spent the next few hours after lunch sketching her starry eyes and her strong arms and her big, toothy smile.

Pretty girls like Kori didn't deserve to cry - ever.

So when Kori Anders came speeding through the hallway for the third time today, this time with her trembling bottom lip caught between her teeth and a pool of tears rolling down her cheeks, Baran was obviously a little worried.

Among her distress, Kori closed her eyes to blink away the tears, and didn't look where she was going. Soon enough, she found herself toppled over in a heap from having tripped over Baran's wheelchair.

Kori slowly got up, trying her best not to look over at her friend. She did anyway however, and she immediately started outwardly sobbing into an embrace that Baran had pulled her into.

Eventually, the two found themselves in the same setting as during lunch. Baran was holding Kori's hand comfortingly, listening intently as Kori sobbed between her tale of her own sister making fun of her in front of Kori's boss. Baran was less holding her hand and more laying his hand out as she laid her much smaller, delicate one in his - Baran was much too fearful of accidentally hurting the obviously very strong girl.

"I don't...I don't understand! I'm always so nice to her, and I try so hard to make her happy and be a good sister, so why does she hate me so much?" Kori said once she regained her breath, wiping away a tear with her white sleeve.

"...I'm sorry. She's...she's not a good sister. You deserve better." Baran said choppily, not really knowing what to say. Kori sighed and smiled bittersweetly.

"Thanks, Baran. For listening to me." Kori said as she reached over and hugged Baran's neck.

As Baran heard Kori's sneakers squeaking their way out of the room, Baran looked up one more time at Kori to get her attention.

"...Kori. I...I want you to help me out of my chair." Baran said quietly.

Kori nodded in agreement. This was normal, perhaps he was just tired of trying to move his body from between his chair and his bed himself.

But when Kori walked over and started to pull Baran up, he stood up of his own strength and will.

Baran stood tall and independent for the first time in his life, and he looked down at Kori bashfully, trying not to scare her off with how big and scary he looked from above.

"You...I…" Kori muttered in disbelief, her green eyes wide.

She suddenly broke into a large smile, shooting forward and hugging her apparent soulmate by his waist, her head on his chest. She squeezed him in joy as she laughed at their discovery, Baran really realizing just how strong the smaller girl was and laughing with her, petting her red hair.

Mammoth finally was able to walk of his own will out of the hospital, the sketchbook long forgotten.

[I don't like how I ended this, it seemed a little too...sudden? I don't know. Read and Review, please!]


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